The Divorcing Religion Podcast

Jerusha Lofland  HOMESCHOOL HELL Divorced: Fundamentalist Christianity and IBLP Cult Jerusha Lofland was homeschooled by extremists in Michigan, along with her 10 younger siblings. Her quest for truth led her first out of Bill Gothard’s IBLP cult, then away from Evangelicalism, then freed her from religion altogether. In this episode, Jerusha shares what it was like growing up in an extremist Chri...

EMILY HEDRICK DON’T F*CK THE FLOCK Divorced: Mennonite Christianity In addition to having her M.Div, Emily Hedrick is a Certified Trauma Support Specialist, a certified Forward Facing coaching practitioner, and a religious-trauma informed spirituality coach. Deconstructing since age 17, Emily roamed religious circles as an atheist for over a decade,and spent  four of those years as a pastor! Godle...

Mary Burkhart: Leaving the Black Church Divorced: Apostolic Christianity TW: CSA, suicidal thoughts Mary Burkhart grew up in the Apostolic/Pentecostal Christian traditions and was heavily indoctrinated into her faith, remaining devout for over 20 years. Her deconstruction journey took her to some very dark places, and nearly cost Mary her life. She is now a Religious Trauma Life Coach, after 10 ye...

David Teachout  Divorced: Christianity David Teachout has his Master’s in both forensic psychology and counseling psychology, and he is currently working on a doctorate in clinical psychology. He grew up as a Christian fundamentalist, attending a bible college where he received a BA in theology and psychology - and deconverted in the middle of it all! This year, David spoke at the Conference on Re...

Rick Pidcock Divorced: Christian Fundamentalism Rick is a graduate of Bob Jones University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Bible. He recently completed a Master of Arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary.  After twenty years of leading worship in churches, Rick embarked on a season of spiritual healing where he learned to face his wounds and discover the wonders he had long been suppressi...

Jennifer French  Divorced: Christian mystical cult Jennifer French is a cult and religious recovery counsellor with a Master’s degree in the psychology of coercive control. She was a member of a Christian mystical cult for 11 years, and this year she addressed us at the Conference on Religious Trauma (CORT2022). Jennifer is host of the Project Hope Podcast for families and friends with loved ones...

PESACH EISEN Divorced: Ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Judaism Pesach Eisen is a trained psychotherapist and researcher with a focus on the intersection of religious disaffiliation and mental health. Pesach was raised in an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish faith community, from which he gradually departed during his 20s. Today, we explore what it was like to grow up in such a fundamentalist environment, and h...

Angela Soffe Divorced: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormonism) Angela Soffe was raised in the Philippines in an Argentine-American family. She is a rising star in the music world whose work and story have been featured in independent films, commercials, and podcasts worldwide. Her music reflects moving out of personal darkness and the challenges of stepping away from 30 years in Mo...

ELAM ZOOK Divorced: Traditional Amish Christianity Elam Zook is a writer, activist, and community organizer addressing Amish and plain community issues. His work has been published in The Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies. Elam's efforts were instrumental in organizing the groundbreaking Disrupting History: Reclaiming Our Amish Story conference, which challenged conventional narra...

Dr. CALEB LACK Divorced: Christianity Caleb W. Lack, Ph. D., is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Central Oklahoma. A licensed clinical psychologist, he is an award-winning educator and bestselling author of six books. He specializes in the treatment of children and adults with anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. Dr. Lack is the former director of the Sec...

Clint Heacock  Divorced: Evangelical Christianity Dr. Clint Heacock is an ex-evangelical pastor and Bible college teacher of over 20 years who is now committed to helping formerly religious people unpick their indoctrination, mind control, and conditioning - and take back their lives. You may recognize Clint as the host of MindShift podcast, and as a speaker at the Conference on Religious Trauma e...

David C. Smalley Divorced: Christianity In addition to being a successful comedian and actor with over 100 million views on TikTok, David C. Smalley has also hosted his own podcast for over 12 years, making over 600 episodes, downloaded some 60 MILLION times. The David C. Smalley podcast includes discussions that are inspiring and funny, with cordial debates on skepticism, religion, spirituality,...

Divorced: Christianity Today’s guest is skeptic, magician, and snake-breeder Matt Dillahunty! Raised Southern Baptist, Matt once considered becoming a minister. Eventually, he lost all belief in the tenets of Christianity and became an atheist. In addition to being a well known speaker and debater, Matt has hosted and co-hosted numerous popular shows on atheism including NonProphets Radio and The...

Jillian is a women's self-worth group facilitator as well as a family mediator who practices in Boise, Idaho. Jillian has 13 years of experience working in the mental health field and has her bachelors in criminal justice, with a minor in psychology. Jillian's primary passion is facilitating support groups and courses to women through her practice at Goddess LLC, where she specializes in...

Beatrice Weber was raised in an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community and was married off to a Rabbi in an arranged marriage before graduating high school.  She is a published Author, speaker, education advocate, and mother of 10. In 2019, she filed a complaint with NYC and NYS on behalf of her youngest son, since he was not receiving a basic education. In 2020 she was featured in a New York Times video...

HEMANT MEHTA Divorced: Jainism Hemant Mehta is the founder and editor of FriendlyAtheist.com, a YouTube creator, and podcast co-host. He is a former National Board Certified math teacher in the suburbs of Chicago and continues to coach a competitive public speaking team. He has appeared on CNN and FOX News and served on the board of directors for Foundation Beyond Belief and the Secular Student Al...

Today’s guest is my friend in real life, Courtney Heard. We met when I was preparing the first Conference on Religious Trauma and she offered me her marketing expertise. As two atheists, we clicked immediately. Through the years we have co-hosted a podcast together (Godless Moms Podcast) and now, with her husband John, Courtney has launched a new podcast that is extremely timely: The Q-Dropped Pod...

Erin Louis: Wife, Mother, Author and Stripper Divorced: Catholicism Erin Louis was raised a soft Catholic and is a former stripper and author. She has written 3 nonfiction books about stripping: Dirty Money: Memoirs of a Stripper https://amzn.to/3UdTAfR (her memoir) Think you want to be a Stripper? (an insider's look at the industry), https://amzn.to/3EJxsEf and Expose Yourself (a book about...

Today's guest is New York City native Mandisa L. Thomas, who is the founder and president of Black Nonbelievers, Inc. While Mandisa escaped religious indoctrination, today she shares candidly about overcoming other harmful forms of indoctrination and why she started Black Nonbelievers. Contact Mandisa: http://www.blacknonbelievers.org IG: @mandisa0904 T:  @mandy0904 Support this podcast on Pa...

Bradley Onishi grew up in a nonreligious home in California before his extreme conversion to evangelicalism at age 14. By age 20 he was married and leading a 200-student youth group. After 7 years in ministry, he decided to pursue his Masters in Theology at Oxford University - where he ended up deconstructing his faith.   Today, Dr. Onishi is a social commentator, scholar, writer, teacher, coach,...

Divorced: Christianity Dr. Marlene Winell is a psychologist and author of Leaving the Fold: A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving Their Religion. She is a pioneer in the field of religious trauma, having worked in religious recovery for over 30 years, and she originated the term “Religious Trauma Syndrome.”  After I read her book and attended one of her retreats, Dr. Winell became...

Shirley Fessel is a religious domestic abuse survivor advocate with Masters in both Counseling and Education from Wichita State University. Raised Catholic, Shirley married a Baptist minister who suffered from mental illness and abused Shirley and their children. Shirley was eventually able to flee with her children and begin building a safe life for herself with no help or support from her religi...

Trigger Warning: Suicidality Alice Greczyn is an actress, writer, and the founder of Dare to Doubt. Midwest-raised and L.A.-based, the Eurasian performer is best known for her role as Mads Rybak on Freeform’s The Lying Game, and occasionally someone recognizes her from the Twitch-streamed all-girls Dungeons & Dragons group Girls, Guts, Glory. Alice is fascinated by the subjective experience of...

Dr. Darrel Ray Divorced: Christianity In addition to being a successful psychologist and author, Dr. Darrel Ray is also the beloved founder of  both Recovering from Religion and the Secular Therapy Project. Today, Dr. Ray gets personal about his own reasons for leaving religion and what gives him hope in the midst of our tumultuous times. Contact Dr. Ray www.recoveringfromreligion.org www.seculart...

Seth Andrews is a former evangelical and Christian broadcaster who now hosts The Thinking Atheist…one of the most popular online atheist communities in the world. The Thinking Atheist is not a person. It is an icon encouraging all to reject faith and pursue reason and evidence. Since its launch in 2010, The Thinking Atheist podcast has been downloaded over 50 million times. Seth has authored five...